Ex-post control Duration of Asylum Court proceedings - complaints are up For years, the AOB has faced many complaints about the duration of Asylum Court proceedings (most recently annual report of 2012). Unfortunately, this situation has not relaxed but in fact intensified. Complaints were up by 27 % in 2013. This again raises the question of the efficiency of legal protection. Number of complaints is up The number of complaints was up from 538 in 2012 to 683 in 2013. Almost all of these complaints related to the duration of the proceedings, with many asylumseekers approaching the AOB for a second, third or even fourth time, requesting that it ask the Asylum Court again. This confirms the impression outlined in the Annual Report 2012 that those affected want to obtain certainty about their status. Unfortunately, the Asylum Court was again unable to report progress in many cases this year or predict when the proceedings would be completed. 574 complaints about the duration of proceedings were justified. In 38 cases from 2013, the Asylum Court announced that final results had been reached. Of the complaints relating to the duration of proceedings, 47 referred to Asylum Court proceedings which started in 2013, 350 in 2012, 146 in 2011, 79 in 2010, 22 in 2009 and nine in 2008. “Legacy proceedings” still not completed Only nine complaints related to “legacy proceedings”, i.e. proceedings which the Asylum Court took over from the Independent Federal Asylum Senate on 1 July 2008. This figure is low given the total number of complaints. However, it is important to remember that these proceedings have been open since 2004, 2005 and 2007. These asylum-seekers have been waiting for a result for up to nine years. This uncertainty must be especially difficult for those, who are already spending a significant part of their lives in Austria. They are nationals of Turkey, Zaire, Sudan, Congo and Afghanistan. Afghan nationals submitted most complaints Most of the complaints, i.e. 330 were submitted by asylum-seekers from Afghanistan, 167 from Somalia, 35 from Iran, 26 from Syria, 13 from Sudan and 11 from Iraq. The remaining complaints were split between various nationalities. As the Allocation of Responsibilities and Duties of the Asylum Court specified country senates, it is likely that some senates, e.g. the Afghanistan Senate, faced an excessive workload, but that there was no, or not always, a timely response to this situation. Federal Administrative Court takes over “backlog” In its activity reports and in communications to the AOB, the Asylum Court repeatedly referred to the decreasing number of pending complaint proceedings. Unfortunately, this is not reflected in the complaints received by the AOB. The Federal Administrative Court, responsible since 1 January 2014, has taken over around 11,600 pending complaint proceedings according to its president, which were distributed between approx. 160 judges. Where court proceedings have already taken place, these are to remain with the previously responsible judges. Individual case: VA-BD-ASY/0180-C/1/2013, AsylGH 100.920/0260-Präs/2013 etc. 46